


Keeping the Family Together

by jacquelee



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Community: tv-universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-04
Updated: 2014-07-04
Packaged: 2018-02-07 11:43:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1897731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacquelee/pseuds/jacquelee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing scene from Mortal Coil explaining Samantha’s very good timing when calling Neelix and later going to the transporter room. Told from Janeway's perspective.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping the Family Together

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a challenge at [TV Universe](http://tv-universe.livejournal.com).

Chakotay had gone to the transporter room and Harry had stopped Neelix’s first try to transport into the nebula. He had informed her that Neelix seemed to have set a site to site transporter with a tricorder, that could only be stopped on site with that tricorder. There was nothing else Captain Janeway could do, other than letting Chakotay handle it. 

She told herself that they should have seen it coming, that she should have tried harder, talked to Neelix more, do something. 

She knew there had been something wrong with Neelix ever since he had come back, she knew that probably the vision quest he performed with Chakotay had been good for him, he seemed better afterwards, but there was still something he held back, something that hindered him from going back to the life he knew, the life she knew he loved. 

She suspected that it had something to do with what he had seen when he was dead, or what he hadn’t seen. Beliefs were a powerful thing, she knew that, especially the belief of what would happen after death. She remembered what crewmembers had told her about Neelix in the past few days. Obviously she would never pry but it was her duty as Captain to ensure her crewmembers physical and emotional health and in cases such as this it was invaluable to get others’ opinions. 

Chakotay hadn’t said much and she hadn’t asked him further, knowing how important his faith and the sacredness of vision quests were to him. But Samantha Wildman had mentioned something about Neelix having expected to see something after death that hadn’t been there. Something about a story he had told Naomi. 

Naomi. Thinking of the little girl sparked an idea in Janeway. Even though she had all the faith in Chakotay’s ability to handle the situation, it couldn’t hurt sending him some help. Reminding Neelix that there were people here who cared for him. Calling him back to his life. 

She tapped her communicator. 

“Ensign Wildman?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“I have an unusual request and no time to explain. I need you to call Neelix right now. I think Naomi saw some monsters in the replicator.” 

“Captain, Naomi is fine, she’s here…”

“Please, Samantha, just make the call.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Janeway held her breath waiting for the Ensign to call back, or for something to happen. Looking around the bridge into all the worried faces, nobody saying anything, she knew that everybody knew how dangerous this situation was, how close they were to losing a friend and how awful everybody felt about not being able to do anything about it. 

“He’s not answering. I called him twice.” 

Janeway let out a breath and turned around, wiping her hand over her face in a desperate gesture. 

“He’s in transporter room one. Can you go there and tell him you had to track him down and that you and Naomi need him right now. I will send someone to watch Naomi while you’re there.” 

She pointed to Tuvok, who nodded, checked his controls and then called someone on his communicator. 

“Of course Captain. I’m on my way.” 

Janeway could tell that Sam was still confused about everything, but she was sure that she would do her best to follow her instructions. She would do her best to help Neelix any way she could, even when she didn’t really know what was going on. 

For the next two minutes the bridge was absolutely quiet and the nervousness and worry was palpable. Janeway was sure she wouldn’t be able to sit still in her chair so she just proceeded walking back and forth in front of it, until finally her communicator went off again.

“Captain, we got him back. Everything is alright.” 

Chakotay’s voice seemed to release all the tension on the bridge. Paris let out a big sigh and turned back to his controls, not wanting to seem too emotional. Harry fistpumped the air and let out a sound between a sigh and a cheer and even Tuvok seemed to show some relief. 

Janeway just smiled and went back to her chair. 

“Good work, Commander.” 

Sitting down, Janeway had to hold back some tears of relief. She knew it was inappropriate for her to show emotions like this on the bridge but she also knew that every one of her senior staff shared those emotions in this moment. 

They had nearly lost one of their own. For the second time in just a few days. Sure, it was expected from a Starfleet crew to handle losses but this was more than just a Starfleet crew. 

This was their family. 

And she would do everything to keep it together.


End file.
